An Unexpected Way To Cause Leukemia, International Study 4/10/2008 8:09:57 AM

ScienceDaily (Apr. 10, 2008) — Leukaemia -- cancer of blood or bone marrow -- is caused by mutations that allow defective blood cells to accumulate and displace healthy blood. To devise effective therapies it is crucial to know which mutations cause leukaemia and which cell type gives rise to leukaemic cells. Researchers from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Italy, the EMBL-European Bioinformatics Institute, UK, and the Universities of Harvard, USA, and Lund, Sweden, have now used genetic engineering to introduce a mutation found in human leukaemia patients into mice.